Company

Joaquín Rodrigo, one of the indispensable names of 20^th century Spanish music, composed his most popular work in 1939 in Paris, and premiered it in Barcelona one year later. It is an evocative and inspired concert for guitar and orchestra. Unanimously well-respected Pilar López felt a strong wish to turn this piece into a choreography, which she did in 1952, with her own company. Antonio Gades, Ballet Nacional Español first director and absolute fan of Pilar López, whom she always referred to as “his teacher”, immediately included it. The piece is a pure classical Spanish dance, always elegant and graceful, that transports us to times past. For this anniversary, the Ballet Nacional de España wished to revive the second movement, the famous Adagio, that Pilar López pictured as nocturn and in which, the choreographer said, “four suitors are attracted by the wonderful gardens of Aranjuez, by the night, which is symbolised by a woman; night disappears, and four maids come out but fail to win their hearts. The men leave in search of the night”.